Though Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been sidelined with a groin injury, her impact on the WNBA continues to drive headlines, especially with the 2025 All-Star Game on the horizon.
The league announced on Thursday that Clark, who was voted an All-Star Game captain, will be paired with Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. But the decision is drawing sharp criticism from fans who believe Reeve has been openly critical of the 23-year-old phenom.
The announcement came just hours after the Fever extended their win streak to three with a dominant 81-54 victory over the Las Vegas Aces-Indiana’s second consecutive game holding an opponent to under 60 points.
That stat hadn’t been achieved in the WNBA since 2003. Even without Clark, the Fever have found a groove, going 4-1 during her current absence. Earlier in the season, they went 2-3 without her while she recovered from a quadriceps injury.
But on the night of their most recent win, the All-Star coaching assignments created new friction. “Team Clark will be coached by Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. Team Collier will be coached by New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello,” WNBA Communications announced on X.
What should have been a celebratory moment quickly turned into a controversial one, given Reeve’s previous criticism of how the WNBA has promoted Clark.
Fans say pairing feels personal after Olympic snub and past criticism
Back in May 2024, Reeve publicly expressed her frustration with what she perceived to be disproportionate media coverage given to Clark and the Fever. Taking to X, Reeve used hashtags like #12teams and #theWismorethanoneplayer, indirectly pushing back against what she saw as an imbalance in the league’s marketing strategy. She even responded “That part” to a post implying the WNBA was only focused on Clark.
Reeve, who was also the head coach of the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, came under fire again when Clark was left off the roster. Many fans believed Reeve played a role in her exclusion-though she denied being the deciding factor. Still, the tension hasn’t subsided, and Thursday’s All-Star Game announcement seemed to reignite old frustrations. The social media backlash was swift.
“Great…we get CC hater Cheryl Reeve. The same coach too stupid to put her on the Olympic team,” one fan posted.
“[Expletive] CC got the opps as coach, swap em please,” another added.
One fan slammed Reeve‘s Olympic track record, writing: “Cheryl, who kept CC off the Olympic team so that no one would watch that [expletive] and then almost lost to France while Turasi and Griner rode the pine?”
Others questioned the stylistic fit, with one user saying: “No one wants to see Cheryl Reeve run Caitlin Clark in a motion offense. This is an embarrassment. Reeves hates Caitlin.”
As of now, neither Clark nor Reeve has responded publicly to the uproar. But for fans of the Fever guard, the All-Star Game pairing feels less like a celebration and more like an awkward standoff.
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